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Bakke Cross Examines Long Part 3

November 4, 2010

Bakke
questioned Long about an employee named Ms. Bachler and asked whether it would
surprise him that she had threatened to quit because of him.Long replied that no, because she threatened
to quit all of her supervisors.

Bakke
then turned the conversation to the issue of whether Long had wanted to be CEO.

Bakke:You said, not really.

Long:Yes.

Bakke:That's not accurate, is it?

Long:It's accurate.

Bakke
then produced a handwritten document from April 2007.

Bakke:You prepared this document about the time
that Halvorson was chosen as CEO?

Long:I can't say with certainty, but yeah.

Bakke:You're writing thoughts why you weren't chosen?

Long:It's plausible.

Bakke:Then you are listing reasons why you should
be CEO rather than Halvorson.

Long:I can't confirm or deny, it's plausible.

The list
began saying "Why me" followed by bullet points:strong leader; WSI required leadership from
inside out, not outside in; public speaking ability; can retain current board
structure.It next said "Why
Not".The first bullet point was
nepotism.Others included:political ties, and only managed one
person.Bakke asked whether Long was referring
to Halvorson.Long said that may match
Halvorson.

Bakke:For you to have stated you didn't want the
CEO position was incorrect, wasn't it?

Long:No.

Bakke:You met with board chair, Bob Indvik, and
told him he was mistaken in appointing Halvorson to the CEO.

Long:Yes.

Bakke:You told Indvik while Halvorson was CEO.

Long.May have.

Bakke:You were lobbying to become CEO, weren't you?

Long:That's how you're trying to paint it.I did what I could to prevent Halvorson from
becoming CEO.

Bakke:You were trying to sabotage Halvorson?

Long:Not at all.

Bakke
then asked questions about Long talking with outside media.

Bakke:Are you familiar with the website
northdecoder?

Long:Yes.

Bakke:It's operated by Chad Nodland, an attorney,
right?

Long:Yes.

Bakke:I understand he is an attorney who advocates
for injured workers, correct?

Long:I think he is.He's a friend of mine.

Bakke:You were talking with Nodland so he would
publicize things damaging to Halvorson, right?

Long:No.He's a friend.

Bakke
then brought up board members names:Ripplinger, Ballweber, and Mandigo.

Long:There was alot of concern about Halvorson's proclivity
to engage in political concerns.There
were violations of the Hatch Act and I knew the conduct didn't stop because
Forward told me.

Bakke:You testified you reported to Ballweber that
Halvorson was meeting with politicians, correct?

Long:Special interest groups would be more apt.

Bakke:Is that illegal?

Long:I don't know if I'd use the word illegal or
unethical.

Bakke:You do remember telling Ballweber that
Halvorson should not be appointed CEO, correct?

Bakke
established that Long met with Ballweber and board member Mandigo at an office
at Northern Improvement and complained to both of them that Halvorson should
not be CEO, among other things and that Long never told Halvorson about the
meeting.Long said there were grave issues
that the board had to look at.

Bakke
then turned the questioning to a conversation Long had with board member
Ripplinger.

Bakke:This was a phone call you recorded, correct?

Long:Possibly, yes.

Bakke:You said you were a pretty transparent guy,
right?

Long:Yes.

Bakke:That means you're up and up, you don't hide
things, right?

Long:Yes.

Bakke:You didn't tell Ripplinger you were recording
her conversation, did you?

Long:No.

Bakke:To put this in context, wasn't her husband in
the hospital at the time?

Long:I don't know.

Bakke:And Billie Peltz was in the room while you
recorded?

Long:I wanted someone there from WSI.

Bakke:You didn't tell Ripplinger Peltz was in the
room at the time.

Long:I don't recall.

Bakke
then played a tape recording of a conversation between Long and
Ripplinger.It began with Ripplinger
telling Long that she was at the hospital because her husband had just had
surgery.Long told her that he'd
received a memo from the Internal Auditor that they'd found something fishy in
Hutchings' cell phone bills, that he'd been calling a claims panel extension
alot.It was a claims adjuster.He said what started as a financial issue
went to an issue of Title VII sexual harassment and that Hutchings had had an
earlier claim of sexual harassment with another claims adjuster.In that case, they had found sexual
harassment and had recommended termination, but that Blunt had put Hutchings on
notice not to do that anymore.Long told
Ripplinger his concern was liability.

Long told
Ripplinger he'd been asked to perform the pre-investigation notifications.Forward and Bjornson told him he should have
a witness.Long then asked Forward and
Bjornson whether he could record the conversations.They said yes, that would be less
intimidating for Hutchings as well and also for Nallie.He said that Hutchings and Nallie were
colluding on information, steering the story away from romance and saying that
Hutchings was offering the woman therapy.Long said that he fully revealed the recording.

He told
Ripplinger Halvorson had reprimanded him and was going to start an
investigation on him because he recorded.Long told Halvorson it was a common practice.He said he was being retaliated against and
his career was in jeopardy because they didn't want this information to come
out.Long said he told Halvorson he knew
he was retaliating, that he had talked with the legal department and had gotten
permission to do the recording and had done it for his own protection.Halvorson was hostile.

Long told
Ripplinger he went down and filled out a form and filed under the Whistleblower
Act and that he thought Halvorson's goal was to get rid of him because he was
worried Long may uncover something embarrassing to executive staff.

Ripplinger
then asked Long whether he was going too far in the investigation. Long
replied, no.

Ripplinger
(on recording):All you did was the notifications?

Long:Yes.

Ripplinger:Why did Halvorson not want you to do that?

Long:It wasn't that he didn't want me to do it,
but he got a complaint from Nallie about the recording.He's doing alot of slimy stuff.He shouldn't be CEO, he's causing problems.He's actively looking at Jodi, Billie,
especially Kay.

Ripplinger:I would like you to run this by Bob.It seems like you are having a one on one
with Halvorson.He's calling the shots.We put him in charge.I don't know Halvorson's take on this, but
your next channel is to go to Bob.

Long:I've had others place ethical issues
regarding Halvorson on my shoulders, so it is beyond one on one.This is much bigger.Can I trust Bob with this?

Long
expressed concerns that Bob Indvik was an advocate for Halvorson, no matter
what, and that a sexual harassment case could jeopardize the organization.He said he didn't want to be personally
liable for this issue, that he didn't want to have to write checks.Ripplinger told him there was a chain of command
and you could always go to human resources but sometimes there were other
options and he should go to Bob Indvik.

Bakke
then began questioning again.

Bakke:This conversation was August 30, 2007?

Long:Yes.

Bakke:Yesterday you told me you never filed a
Whistleblower Act report on 8/30/07.In
this recording you said you'd complained under the Whistleblower Act, correct?

Long:Yes.

Bakke:So what you said yesterday was false
testimony?

Long:I don't know that was a formal Whistleblower
Act complaint until I filed with Attorney General Stenehjem.

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About Me

Sue Wilson tells important stories which move politicians to act. She is the Emmy winning director of the media reform documentary "Broadcast Blues" and editor of SueWilsonReports.com.
Broadcast Blues sets its sights on media policy, and www.SueWilsonReports.com turns a critical eye on the media itself.
She recently formed an activist site, http://www.MediaActionCenter.net